New York Giants 2018 Draft Pick No 2 | The Boneyard

New York Giants 2018 Draft Pick No 2

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While I claim no knowledge of who they will pick and the relative merits of the choices, I have read a lot of ESPN's pre-draft articles and have a few comments about those articles and one or two about the Giants history in the draft. Here are the Giants' options:

1. Quarterback - I keep reading that they should pick one of the QB's available. What about last year's No 3 pick, Davis Webb? I keep reading that he is an unknown, having not played even one play in the NFL. But my question is how does that make him any different from any of the college QB's available? My opinion has been that a quality offensive line that gives a QB a lot of time to find receivers will make almost any QB effective. And no QB would have been successful playing behind the Giants' line the last 2-3 years.

2. Running back Saquon Barkley - I keep thinking back to the Bills when they drafted OJ Simpson so many years ago. OJ had it all but Buffalo had no line and OJ floundered for at least 2 years until the Bill owners woke up and got him some blockers.

3. Other choices -
There's a Notre Dame guard that's supposes to be very good, Quenton Nelson . Is he worth the No 2 pick? Can the Giants trade down a few slots and still get him. If they could pick him up with, say the 6th or 7th pick and also get a 2nd round pick I would be happy.
Defensive End Bradley Chubb. Projected as a future all-pro. Is he worth the No 2 pick ? (See comment on Nelson)

I go back to the early 60's with the Giants. That means I lived through a decade and a half of drafts where the decisions were made by Wellington Mara. Joe Don Looney, Rocky Thompson, John Hicks..... the list is long and it was a trail of tears for Giant fans. In those years Wellington was the defacto GM and the Giants went through a large number of coaches and figurehead GM's who took the blame for Mara's incompetance. If you want a comparison, look to Dallas and their futility since Jerry Jones fired his college buddy Jimmy Johnson and took over. he is Wellington except that Mara remained out of the spotlight. The NY media protected him, pilloring the stooge GM's and head coaches while being silent about Wellington despite knowing the truth. It wasn't until Mara's nephew Tim, who owned half the team stepped in and refused to let his uncle name another figurehead GM that things changed. Wellington was finally forced to accept George Young as GM and agreed to keep to the business side of the franchise, leaving all football decisions to Young. Giant fans from that era should erect a statue to Tim Mara for having the guts to say that in effect the emporer (Wellington Mara) had no clothes. Young hired Ray Perkins and then Bill Parcells as head coaches, made some astute draft picks that resulted in 2 Super Bowl victories. After the 2001 Super Bowl win Tim Mara sold his half of the team to the Tisch's. Within a few weeks of the sale Parcells quit, citing health issues. The media has never asked why, after retiring for health reasons from the team he claimed to have dreamed of coaching, Parcells went on to coach 3 other teams, but never returned to the Giants. To anyone who knew anything it was obvious that he left the team because he knew that Mara would be back to his old role of inserting himself between the players and the coach and Parcells wouldn't play stooge for him. The truth of that was reported inadvertently at the time of Mara's death by a NY reporter who while making a point in a memorial article related the story of how in the rookie preseason of 1st round pick Jeremy Shockey, Mara promise him a couple of days off from practice after Shockey pouted during practice. A classic example of how a meddling owner undermines the authority of the coaching staff.

So what does all this mean for the 2018 draft? I remember the 1981 draft when the Giants had the No 2 pick. The team with the top pick chose every expert's all-everything running back George Rogers. George Young "settled" for Lawrence Taylor. I remember that I had never heard of him at the time. Midway through his rookie year we all knew all we needed. I also remember thinking that if Mara had been in charge the Giants would probably have traded up to to pick Rogers. The Giants would be well served if John Mara let men who know football make decisions about football.

But it's John Mara who makes the decisions. Note that he has attended all the prospective player interviews. The Giant ownership has always been inclined to pick offensive stars when they were available and almost never traded down. In 2004 they picked 4th, took Philip Rivers and then tradedhim to San Diego for Manning. In addition to Rivers, the Chargers got the Giants 3rd round pick that year AND their 1st and 3rd round picks in 2005.
Given that the Giants played in front of a half-filled stadium last season and given the love affair that the Mara family has had with hyped running backs I expect them to take the Penn State runner or one of the touted QB's, thereby turning the choice of Webb last year into a wasted pick.

What I would like to see is another even more stupid owner offer the Giants a trade where the Giants get both Chubb and Nelson and a couple of 2-4th round picks that turn into 2 starters in 2019. But I don't think there is an owner with a more inflated sense of his own ability in all of the NFL as the president of the Giants.
 

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